


And I'd Choose You.

by AlyLutsky



Category: Carmilla (Web Series), Carmilla - All Media Types, Carmilla - J. Sheridan Le Fanu
Genre: F/F, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-02
Updated: 2016-06-09
Packaged: 2018-07-11 20:59:38
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,795
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7069906
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlyLutsky/pseuds/AlyLutsky
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p></p><blockquote>
  <p>"And I'd choose you; in a hundred lifetimes, in a hundred worlds, in any version of reality, I'd find you and I'd choose you." - Kiersten White, The Chaos of our Stars.<br/></p>
</blockquote>Carmilla, a broody college student is roommates with a tiny ray of human sunshine, Laura Hollis. The women seem to have come to a rather peaceful status quo in their living arrangement... until Carmilla starts to have some strangely vivid dreams in which her and Laura have an entirely different relationship.
            </blockquote>





	1. The Prophecy

_Lola Perry stood, clutching her spell book while gazing upon the face of the Fairy Queen Tythia, her face filled with rapt adoration._

_"Ah, Mircalla Von Karnstein... Shall I grant you your fondest wish?" The Fairy Queen asks you._

_There is something about her voice that grates across every one of your nerves, so you narrow your eyes at Tythia and say, "Oh, you mean carve me out a slice of that cake like you did for Sporty Spice? No, thank you. I'm good. Lola here's going to finish the spell though."_

_"You shall meet your match. An annoying shrill of a girl. One who truly challenges you." You can feel your heart skip a beat, but you still bite out the snarkiest reply you can. The Fae's prophecy continues to echo through your mind as she turns her sickly sweet smile on the curly haired ginger, promising the wonders of the universe and you watch as Perry's face lights up with possibility. Your heart starts to sink as Perry becomes more and more engrossed in the world that the Fae is describing._

_"Really? You'd pick me? You don't think I'm just kind of... average?" Perry asks. At that you clench your fist, dammit, and here you were thinking you wouldn't have to murder Curly Sue after all. And then the Fairy mentions the cost that this magical future would bring, and you watch as the redhead straightens her shoulders and belts out the spell that will bring an end to the fairy's brief stint on Earth. And then the world starts to shake._

**Carmilla**

Your alarm blares and you blearily raise your head to check the time. 12:00... Good, you still have a few hours before your first lecture. You have just about decided to roll over and go back to sleep when your stomach growls. So you drag yourself from your bedroom, and as you approach the kitchen you hear the low murmur of conversation. Great, people. It's bad enough when you have to deal with little miss sunshine at this ungodly hour of the afternoon, let alone her merry band of imbeciles. You drag a hand through your raven hair to tame down some of the bed head. Your frown grows as you step into the kitchen and the trio sitting at your table falls silent.

"Oh... hey, Carmilla! Do you know LaF and Perry?" Your roommate gestures towards the two gingers. 

"Tweedle Dee, Tweedle Dum... pleasure." The curly haired one gives a little huff at your nick name and straightens her shoulders, reminding you of the rather vivid dream you had been having just minutes before. 

"Actually, I was just dreaming about you Curly Sue..." You tilt your head and raise your eyebrow as you say this, as if to suggest your dream was of a much more... intimate nature. It brings you immense satisfaction when you see Perry's face flush, and you do not miss how the other red head is glaring at you. You decide to cut the newly awkward silence with a little bit more information, "In my dream you were a hippie witch... or something. You accidentally unleashed a wish granting, blood hungry Fairy." 

The science ginger's eyebrows raise and they barely manage to mask their laugh with a coughing fit

"LaFontaine, don't you dare! We were in high school, it was a long time ago, okay?!" Perry glares at her friend as they struggle to control their face.

"Right... I know Perr. You just practiced Wicca for years because you wanted to see the magical mysteries of the great beyond." LaF says with a dopey grin on their face. 

"Perry, Lola Perry... Queen of the Normal... you practiced Wicca?" Laura tilts her head as she tries to fit this new information into the things she knows about her friend. 

"Yes, Laura. If you must know I wanted to pull back the veil to see the beautiful clockwork of the universe. LaFontaine, however, kept insisting that unless the results were measurable and conclusive then it was a waste of our time." Perry crosses her arms and frowns. "So, I cast a spell in your dream, Carmilla?" 

"Um..." You can see that Perry is hoping that at least in your dreams she would have been a successful hippie witch (Wiccan, whatever), "Yeah, after you unleashed the soul sucking Fairy Queen, she offered you the universe. You ended up saying something like ' _how can I be Ginger 2 without my Ginger 1_ ' and then you cast a spell to vanquish her" The two gingers look at each other, blush and then quickly look away. You look at Laura who shrugs, as she tries not to laugh at your Perry impersonation. God, they really need to get their shit together.

"So, we should probably get back to the dorms, hey Perr? It is Taco Tuesday at the cafeteria..." Perry nods, and you grab a bowl of cereal while the gingers start to gather their things. Finally, some peace and quiet. Laura stays sitting at the table and her friends show themselves out. 

"Who knew I would be living with a psychic? Personally... I probably would have guessed vampire if someone had of asked me what kind of mythical creature you were when we first met. You know, dark, broody, completely incapable of being awake during the day. Did high school Laura make an appearance? Do I have to be worried that you have seen my deep, dark back story?" 

"No... seriously, creampuff? You don't exactly scream deep, dark you know? Now that you mention it, that Fairy Queen did tell me we would meet."

"She told you we would meet, after we had already met? Some psychic you are Carm." 

Laura gets up from the table and pauses in the doorway to the kitchen as you say, "Yeah, well she didn't say, Laura Hollis will be your roommate and try to spread sunshine and rainbows all over your life. It was more along the lines of prepare to meet your match Karnstein, she is going to be both shrill and annoying, which is pretty much a perfect descriptor of you, cutie." You bop her on the nose as you make your way out of the kitchen to go get ready for class. 

"Rude! And Carm... you're supposed to wash the dishes after you use them!" You can still hear her grumbling under her breath as you close your bedroom door, and you smile when you think about how adorable she is when she makes that bunched up angry face.

**Laura**

You grumble under your breath as you wash your jerkface roommates bowl and pop it on the drying rack. Okay, so yes, she is less of a jerkface than you had originally thought... you would have never brought your friends back to the apartment at the start of last semester. By now you realize Carmilla's snark is mostly harmless, and if you are being completely honest, she can be funny. Sort of. Sometimes. But just because she has the face of a goddess does not mean it's okay for her to shirk the chore wheel. Which now that you think of it, has been missing for the last week or so. Hmm. 

You quickly grab your backpack, and your coat and head towards campus. Professor Cochrane is amazing, but she is also a notoriously difficult grader, so you and your partner are trying to get an early start on your project for her journalism class. As you climb the library stairs your breath comes out in white puffs, courtesy of the cold Toronto January. You and Betty have been tossing ideas back and forth all weekend about what your journalism project should focus on, but nothing has felt quite right. 

As you enter the library you see a large group of Zeta bros circled around a table to the right, so naturally you choose a table as far away from them as possible. 

"Hey little nerd hottie!" You glare at the Zeta who sits down at your table. Of course being as far away as physically possible was not enough to deter Wilson Kirsch, human puppy. You became friends last semester when you gave him a pencil and paper in English 101, and he had been following you around campus ever since.

"Kirsch, I told you not to call me that, my name is Laura." You mean to say it with a little bit of bite so that Kirsch can get that it irritates you, but it just comes across as tired. 

"Right, sorry little ne... Laura. Uh, I was just wondering if we could talk about that British book... you know the one about the wolves?" 

"Beowulf? Kirsch... you know Beowulf isn't about wolves right?" You look at your watch and realize you have some time to kill before Betty gets there, and besides she is always notoriously late. "Ugh, fine, do you have your copy?" Kirsch pulls out the book with a lopsided grin.

"Dude! You're total bro, thanks little ho... Hollis... Laura." Kirsch sputters as he tries to skip over calling you a hottie, but at least he is trying right?

**********

You have been going over Beowulf for the last two hours, when you realize Betty is over an hour late. Which was late even by Betty's standards. You pull out your phone and shoot her a text.

_Betty: Hey Betty, where are you? I knew I should have given you one of my day of the week bearsprays haha ;)_

"Hey, thanks for the help little L! You okay? I don't think I have ever seen you not smiling before?" Kirsch's brow creases as he takes in the sight of you frowning at your phone.

"Yeah, I was just supposed to meet someone here to work on a project. I guess I lost track of the time. But I guess Betty Jaggerbombanatrix Spielsdorf has decided to turn fashionably late into just not showing up." You can feel the frustration start to bubble. God, Betty. She knew how important this class was to you, she knows how important becoming a journalist is to you. And she promised she was going to take this project seriously. And a huge step in the right direction would be to get a personal recommendation from Professor Cochrane herself. She was a journalist for years, and her connections would go a long way to getting your foot in the door in an industry that keeps the dead bolt solidly in place ninety nine percent of the time. 

Kirsch leans forward and says, "You were waiting for Betty this whole time? Betty Spielsdorf from our English 101 class? Little L... Um... Betty isn't here because she's gone dude." 


	2. The New Roommate, Sweetheart

_You walk down the narrow dorm hallway cursing your luck. As if it wasn't bad enough that Mother dragged you back to Silas to do her dirty work every twenty years, this time she was having you babysit. Apparently on the other side of this innocuous looking door sat a rather persistent roommate of one of the marks, Laura Hollis. She was becoming a real problem for Mother, and (lucky you) a problem for Mother, was a problem for you. Might as well get this over with sooner than later, and with a deep breath you kick open the door to room 307._

_The girl is talking to her webcam, but turns immediately throwing out a, "Umm, excuse me, but who the hell are you?!"_

_Okay, rude. The thorn in Mother's side is tiny, with honey brown hair that seems to shine, even in the dim light of this rather shabby dorm. But, hey, you have definitely stayed in worse conditions. You shudder a little at the thought._

_"Carmilla. I'm your new roommate, sweetheart." You throw over your shoulder as you toss your bag on to what you assume is your side of the room. You don't miss the way Laura scrunches up her face at your use of the nickname sweetheart._

_"My what?!" Laura asks as you turn on some music and start to make yourself at home. You almost feel sorry for the little poptart. She is so incredibly over her head, if there was one person you did not want to get on the bad side of, it was Mother._

_You repeat, "your new roommate" as if maybe the girl gaping at you hadn't heard you clearly the first time._

_"I have a roommate."_

_"Well, don't you catch on fast."_

_"No, I mean I have a pre-existing roommate. A prior roommate. Her name is Betty." Laura has this way of talking with her whole body, her hands circling and grasping as she tries to help you understand the situation she is in. Unfortunately for her, of the two of you, you are probably the only one truly understands the situation she was in. You can see that the more apathy you throw at her the more emphasis and energy it seems to drag out of the tiny woman. Okay, so maybe this was going to be interesting after all. Laura probably wouldn't survive whatever Mother had planned for her anyways, so you might as well have some fun with her first._

**Carmilla**

You raise your head from where it was resting against the back of your chair as you snap out of your dream, a heavy feeling of dread settling into your stomach. Sure, you and Laura hadn't always gotten along the greatest, but you certainly didn't want anything bad to happen her.You were supposed to be reading the chapters for your philosophy class in an hour, but you feel an almost overwhelming need to see your tiny roommate and make sure she's okay. 

It's a dream, Carmilla, it's just a dream, you try to tell yourself as you start gathering your books. It had felt so unbelievably real though. You swear you can still taste the grape soda you had been drinking on your tongue. And Laura. God, she was exactly how she had been at the start of last semester when you first moved in. She was this tiny ball of righteous energy, expecting the world to become a better place just because she wanted it to be. 

"Hey Kitty, where's the fire?" You look up and spot your brother walking down the stairs. You cram your last book into your bag.

"No where, Willy boy. I just need to talk to Laura... why what's up?" You have gotten pretty good at finding hidden study spots all over campus, ones where people won't just stumble across you and interrupt. This particular spot was a set of comfy chairs tucked under the stairs in the Robespierre building. If Will found you here, he was definitely looking. And unfortunately for you, the reason for his search was most likely Mother. 

Will raises his eyebrows, " _Laura_ , huh? Something going on with you and little miss sunshine?" 

"Uh, god Will. Just because we are both gay does not mean there is 'something going on'. Besides, I am pretty sure it's against every rule in the book to mess around with your roommate. To what do I owe the pleasure of your company William?"

"Ah, so you have thought about it. She's cute! In an over caffeinated hyperactive chipmunk sort of way. Besides, everyone makes mistakes in college, and I haven't had to hear details about any study buddies recently..." Will wiggles his eyebrows at you, and in a rare exercise of self control you don't punch him in the face. "I saw Laura at the library with Kirsch like half an hour ago, and who's to say I didn't just want to see my darling sister?" 

You shake your head, but don't bother to dignify such a ludicrous statement with a response, instead you start to head towards the library. Will follows, because of course he has yet to deliver his message. 

"Uh, okay... so, listen, Mattie is coming into town this weekend. Mother wants to know if you will be joining us for supper on Saturday?"

"Ha! I knew it! And... yeah, I guess for Mattie, then yes I will be there." 

"Sweet! Oh, and we're having our start of the semester bash at the Zeta house tomorrow, if you decide to give up being a broody loner for a night." 

"Whatever, Will, I might be a broody loner, but I am still the twin with all the, what do you call them? _Study Buddies_?"

"Gross. Don't remind me. Maybe you can bring _Laura_ this time?" You glare at him as the two of you leave the building, and he laughs, waves and heads off to kill some more brain cells at the hovel they call a frat house. There is no way you share DNA with Will, let alone have shared a womb with him. You must have been secretly adopted like Mattie. 

You turn and head towards the library, pulling your leather jacket tight around you. Leather was perfect for the whole cool and disaffected air you had going on, but not exactly great against a Canadian winter wind. You pick up the pace and take the library stairs two at a time. To get into the warm building of course. Not because you haven't been able to shake the feeling that your roommate is seriously in trouble.

As you enter the library you spot the giant puppy Will told you Laura was with almost immediately, and then you see Laura. She is frowning at her watch and talking to Kirsch. Your heart beat starts to slow as you realize that, of course, Laura is fine. Studying away in the library, probably about fifteen cookies passed the recommended daily limit. But fine. As you walk up, you hear her say, "What do you mean gone Kirsch? Gone as in _missing_?!" And the urgency in her tone causes the relief you felt at the sight of her to disappear.

**Laura**

Holy Hufflepuff... here you were thinking Betty was just shirking her academic responsibility, when something horrible had happened to her. Oh god. 

"Hey, poptart. Did I just hear you say someone is missing?" You look over and see Carmilla... weird. She never comes into the library. Something about rubbing elbows with the unwashed masses. Before you can reply Kirsch jumps in.

"No, sorry Little L... not missing. Her scholarship was revoked. Something about breaking the code in the student handbook. Without the scholarship she can't afford to stay, I ran into her this morning. She was pretty worked up..." 

"Right... the handbook. I should probably read that at some point. There must be something we can do..." Your phone vibrates, and you can see that you have received a text from Betty.

_Betty: Laura, I'm so sorry, it completely slipped my mind that we were supposed to meet this afternoon. I really wish bear spray could fix this :(_

_Betty: My scholarship was revoked, I got a letter from the Office of Student Affairs, but it came to my dorm over Christmas. I didn't check the mail until after class had already started, so I was automatically dropped from my courses._

_Laura: Betty, I am so sorry! Kirsch just told me what happened. There has to be something we can do!_

_Betty: I had a meeting with the Dean of students trying to appeal the decision, but she was less than sympathetic. Honestly, Laur... It felt final. I don't know how much contact you have had with that woman, but there is no give there._

"So, Lois Lane, I take it from the rather furious text session that you are hot on the trail of a big break?" Carmilla says, she has stayed awkwardly standing, looking like she isn't sure if she should cut and run from the conversation she walked in on.

"Sit." You point at the chair beside Kirsch, and surprisingly your roommate obeys. "Okay, so we don't know much..." Your phone vibrates with an incoming text, you see it's a photo of the letter Betty had received. You read out, "Miss Elizabeth Ann Spielsdorf, we regret to inform you that your Silas Scholarship has been revoked due to: A) Misinformation provided to the Office of Student Affairs at the time of application B) Breaking of the Student code of conduct or C) Academic Probation. Please arrange to have your tuition paid by the start of the Winter semester. And option B) is highlighted... they have standardized letters for this sort of thing?! Seriously? There are seriously enough students getting their scholarships revoked that they can't send a personalized letter each time?" 

_Laura: The Dean didn't care that the letter was sent to you over Christmas when you wouldn't have been there to receive it?_

_Betty: No, she didn't. But Laura... I wouldn't be able to pay the tuition without the scholarship anyways._

"Kirsch, go get the Student Handbook. It's the library, they have to have a copy here somewhere, right?" You say running your hand through your hair. You really should have read through that handbook before you got here, but in your defense it's over a thousand pages.

"Listen, cupcake... I know you want to help you friend, but do you seriously think it's a good idea to try to take on the Dean?" Carmilla leans forward and lowers her voice, "She is seriously powerful here at Silas, and... aren't you here on scholarship too? Sometimes people need to be their own hero, Laura." The use of your real name feels foreign coming from Carmilla, and it tells you how serious she is about you walking away from this problem. Yeah, technically it isn't your problem. You could walk away and let Betty handle it herself, but what kind of world would that be? What kind of person would that make you? No, you are Laura Hollis, and a Hollis never walks away from a fight. Now, you just had to find a way to help your friend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is my first time writing on the interwebs. You can find me on [Tumblr](http://thisishowisayiloveyou.tumblr.com). Happy Tuesgay!


	3. Well, You've Done It Now.

**Carmilla**

Laura is being eerily quiet, even her body is still. If there is anything you have learned in your short time as Laura's roommate, it's that quiet and Laura Hollis are not friends. Laura looks at you curiously, probably still shocked that you are acknowledging her existence outside of your apartment. You cross your fingers that she will take your advice on keeping her nose out of other people's problems. You still haven't been able to shake the nagging feeling that something bad is coming for the tiny brunette. However, as Laura narrows her eyes, you realize that you never really expected her to back down. Laura Hollis, force of nature everyone.

"No. I am not just going to give up. Maybe the world doesn't work exactly like I thought it was going to. Students are getting thrown out of our school over nothing and no one seems to care. And maybe that's just the way it is... But I am not just going to accept it. I deserve better. Betty deserves better. Do you seriously think I wouldn't raise this institution to the ground if you had just been kicked out?" Laura stands up at the end of her rant and grabs her copy of Beowulf from the table. You can't help but feel a little surprised at Laura including you in her rant on people she would protect. God, how did this happen? What happened that you suddenly find yourself friends with human sunshine?

"Woah, there cutie, raise this institution to the ground? I thought I was the 'roommate from hell'?" Laura flaps her hands in an attempt to dismiss your snark when she obviously has more important things on her mind.

"Carm, you know what I mean... We need answers. If they have multiple choice note cards there is no way Betty is the only person this has happened to..." Laura is thinking out loud. You are surprised when it's Kirsch who speaks up. 

"She's totally not Little L. You know my girlfriend SJ? Sarah Jane? Well, the same thing happened to her best friend Natalie last semester. It's been really tough, she didn't want to move home so she's been living on SJ's couch while she tries to scrap together enough money to get her own place." Laura's face lights up as she pulls out a tiny notebook and starts to scribble furiously in it. Laura bites her lip as she concentrates on what she is writing, and you realize she has probably had that notebook stashed waiting for an opportunity like this for ages. Seriously this girl is too much. Investigative journalist extraordinaire, hot on the trail of a big scoop. 

"Okay, so we need more details from Betty. What part of the Student Code of Conduct did she break? How did the appeal process go? Eventually we are probably going to have to approach the Dean of Students and figure out what her stance on all of this is. And we need to meet with this Natalie and figure out her story... Kirsch do you think you could ask her if she would meet with me? " Laura queried. You feel your sense of urgency rise at Laura's mention of the Dean of Students. If Laura was going to go out and try to save the world, it would probably be for the best if she didn't take on a titan first. Kirsch interrupts your spiralling thought process. 

"Sure thing, little Nerd, I can ask her tonight. I gotta head out though, I promised SJ I would take her out tonight, since we have a party Friday, start of class bash. You hotties should totally come!" Kirsch smiles at both of you, until you reach over and smack him on the back of the head. "Ow, not nice! You _ladies_ should totally come, better?"

You roll your eyes and say, "Don't count on it beefcake. And I am going to have to catch up with you too, Lauronica Mars. Some of us have a Philosophy class we are going to be late for, so can we hit pause on this whole saving the world one unfortunate coed at a time?" You pick up your bag and head towards your lecture, your tiny roommate falling in beside you.

"I'm going to go see if I can catch up with Perry, as the Floor Don of the dorms she gets all of the gossip first... Not that she shares it of course. Perry is the height of professionalism." Laura elaborates, as if she needs to.

"You don't say! I would have guessed Curly Sue was a law breaker. A real life Thelma, and the science ginger is her Louise." Laura rolls her eyes at you, but she smiles as she says,

"Okay, so Perry can be a little bit of a stickler for the rules..."

"A _little_ bit, short stack? Yeah, she is a little bit tightly wound like you enjoy cookies a little bit. She follows the rules a little bit like I want to punch that giant puppy in the face every time he opens his mouth a little bit. She sticks to..." 

"Okay, okay!" Laura interrupts you, "yes, Perry likes safe. She likes normal. That's why LaF is so perfect for her... as her best friend... because you know, LaF thrives on the weird." Laura pulls out her phone and sends a quick text, most likely to let Raggedy Anne know she was on her way over.

You look over at Laura and raise your eyebrows, "Sure... They're good as 'just best friends' like Ellen and Portia are the greatest of gal pals." You have reached the point in your walk where Laura has to split off to get to the dorms, so you stop. Talking about normal things has taken your mind off of the cupcake's imminent doom... well, okay maybe you are putting too much faith in a dream. Laura is probably fine. Passionate, reckless, with zero regard for self preservation, but that's Laura. You decide to take your own advice, and not take on other people's problems. You told Laura to stay away from this. You have done your duty as a friend, ugh, now it was time to worry about the fact that you never did get the reading done for class.

"You know Carm... for someone who pretends that they don't care about people you sure do seem invested in my friends non-relationship. Just sayin." Laura waves as she continues off towards the dorms, and you cannot think of a good excuse as to why you would care. So instead of responding with a snarky comment you put your headphones in and blast some punk rock music while you finish walking to your class.

**Laura**

You feel so incredibly angry at the situation Betty has found herself in. How dare the system not care that kids with a promising future were being chewed up and spit out of their university without so much as a blink of an eye from the administration. You know that you already have a full plate with your course load this semester, but hey, you did need a journalism project. Why not investigate the expulsion procedures? Maybe if your project garners some attention the appeal process can be changed and things like this will stop happening in the future.

You open the doors to the dormitory and welcome the warm air after your brief walk outside. A part of you wishes you had decided to live in the dorms instead of finding the apartment off campus. The dorms were a five minute walk from any of your classes, and you would have gotten to meet a lot more people, but then again you probably never would have met Carmilla. Even if you had of met, there wouldn't have been a year long lease forcing you to get passed her rather prickly exterior. Plus, your dad was sure that you would be at keggers every weekend if you were surrounded by that many of your fellow classmates. Not entirely accurate, especially on Perry's floor. The events tended to be much more Martha Stewart themed, unless LaF planned them. Things never went exactly according to plan when they planned the parties.

You knock on Perry's door and hear her call for you to come in a second later, as you step into the room you are hit with the delicious aroma of freshly baked brownies. You had met Perry and LaF when you bought one of Perry's brownies at a charity bake sale and then proceeded to gush for the next thirty minutes about how amazing they were. It was love at first taste.

"Oh Laura, good! Perfect timing, here have a brownie they're still warm... you had said you wanted to talk to me about something?" Perry slides a plate over to you and you take a huge bite. LaF is sitting on their bed, and shakes their head.

"Jeez Frosh, what am I going to tell the cookies?" LaF quips as they grab a brownie off the plate as well. You swallow your first bite. 

"Pfft, LaF, the cookies understand that I am still young and need space to try new things, okay? Yeah, Perry, I have this friend Betty, who... well... to make a long story short she broke the Student Code of Conduct and they withdrew her scholarship. Have you heard of anything like that happening to any one else?" You look at your ginger friends as LaF lets out a sharp breath.

"Ooooh, yeah Frosh. That Student Handbook is no joke. You pretty much sign away your first born when you decide to attend Silas." Perry is nodding her head frantically beside her friend.

"It's true, I always have a three hour meeting at the start of the year to go through some of the finer points. I don't know any one personally... but I did recently have a conversation with one of the Lit TA's about a similar situation. Apparently one of the Summer Society girls hadn't completed her scholarship forms correctly... or something, maybe you should talk to the TA? Her name is Danny Lawrence." Perry shrugs, like she knows that this is less information than you would have liked. 

You can feel your face start to turn red and you hope your friends don't notice, because you definitely know who Danny Lawrence is. She was your tall, beautiful, intelligent Lit TA last semester, and every time you almost had your courage gathered up to talk to her you would forget how to speak English. Which was pretty unfortunate since English is the only language you know, so you would then turn on your heel and pretty much run away... But maybe, maybe it would be different if you had an actual reason to talk to her.

"I know Danny, I know her, well not know her, know her... she was my TA last semester. Do you think you could give her my number and ask her to text me about girl she knows?" You keep your voice casual, and since LaF continues to munch on their brownie happily without giving you any sort of strange looks you think you might have managed to keep your crush to yourself. Perry nods and shoots Danny a quick text. 

You feel your phone vibrate two minutes later, and flip it open as fast as you can.

_Unknown: Hi Laura, this is Danny Lawrence. I was your TA last semester for Lit 101, which I am sure you know already... Lola Perry said you have a friend who had their scholarship revoked too. She said you were trying to find a way to help?_

_Laura: Hi Danny! There were like 200 (?) students in our class, I wasn't sure if you would remember me! :) Yeah, I'm not sure we will be able to do anything, but I figured if this was something that was happening on the regular it was worth looking into._

_Danny: You're kind of hard to forget Hollis ;) I am not sure I have ever seen a student stand on their desk to recite Shakespeare before :P It's totally worth looking into! How can I help? Maybe we could go for dinner?_

Your stomach swarms with butterflies and you get a huge grin on your face. Dinner, with your super hot, super sweet Lit TA... in the pursuit of justice of course. But this was the closest you had ever come to having a real conversation, so it was definitely a start. You realize you have just been holding your phone staring at the last text when you get another. 

_Danny: Or you know, coffee._

_Danny: Or just at the library... whatever you think_

Well, at least you aren't the only one who gets flustered!

_Laura: No, dinner works. Dinner's good... I agreed to go to the Zeta party on Friday, but other than that I am pretty much free :)_

_Danny: Ugh, unfortunately, I'll be there too. Us Summer's try to attend all of the Zeta events, someone's gotta make sure they stay under control. How about Saturday?_

_Laura: Saturday's perfect! I guess I will see you Friday! :)_

You stand up and do a little happy dance before you remember you are not, in fact, alone.

"Wow, Frosh. I am guessing that was good news?" LaF chuckles. So much for keeping your crush on the down low.

"Very. Danny and I are going to go to dinner to talk about our respective friend's situations." Your face splits into a grin.

"Right, and that dance was because you are just so _excited_ to be closer to finding a solution for Betty?" You shrug as if to say, maybe, maybe not. Since classes are done for the day and you are still in the first week of the semester you decide to stay and hang out with your friends for a while, catching up on what they did over their breaks and then binging a couple of shows on Netflix. It's almost midnight by the time you head home, and you are surprised to see Carmilla passed out on the couch. She almost never makes it home before you're asleep. Since you are an excellent roommate you grab the blanket from the end of the couch and drap it over Carmilla's sleeping form before tiptoeing down the hall to your room.

***

_A siren starts to blare, and you look at you tiny brunette roommate._

_"Wh-what is that?!" Laura stammers out as she turns to look at you._

_"You've done it now." You clap your hands and rub them together, you aren't exactly sure what is about to happen, but you are certain that Silas has never been this interesting. Laura Hollis was poking a very large bear, one that was now very aware of her presence. The two gingers run in and inform you that there is a Town Hall meeting. So you stand up and walk down the hallway, trying to distance yourself from the tiny annoyance. When you get to auditorium you manage to snag a place leaning against the wall on the other side of the room from your roommate._

_Mother walks out onto the stage and a hush immediately falls across the room. She is six feet of power suited, middle-aged glamazon and if you can feel the energy rolling off of her, you can only imagine how terrifying it must feel to the humans surrounding you. Even if you weren't privy to the fact that she was a couple of thousands of years old you would want to comply to whatever it was she was asking of you._

_"It has come to the attention of the university that a certain individual, or individuals, are circulating rumours about students disappearing. Rest assured if these disturbances do not cease, the perpetrators will be dealt with." You want to snort, because of course, the so called 'rumours' are fact, and Mother knows this better than anyone. You look across at Laura, and you can see her swallow, her face has fallen, and you think that maybe just maybe she is starting to understand that she is fighting a battle alone. One that she has absolutely no chance of winning. Her shoulders slump, as a red headed giant stands up in the crowd._

_"I don't think we should be calling a missing person's report a rumour, when I know for a fact one of the Summer Society members went missing from a Rush party last week." You glance from Clifford to Laura and the look of pure admiration makes you want to punch something. You would think that beanstalk had just announced that she had found a way to bring world peace from the way the cupcake was staring at her._

_Some idiot frat boys start in on how the only way to protect the 'hotties' is by having Zeta safety patrols. Ew, set us back fifty years or so why don't you, you misogynistic meatheads. The auditorium continues to spiral down into chaos, and you duck out when you see some idiots start to throw salted herring. You clench and unclench your fists, trying to forget the bubble of rage that you felt when you saw the way your roommate was staring at the amazon. Laura was a child, who understood nothing. She couldn't see that you were trying to keep her out of your Mother's cross hairs. God, when had the tiny annoyance gotten under your skin enough for you to actually care about her being in trouble. Sure you had been trying to push your Mother's marks out of harm's way for the better part of the last sixty years... but never had your underhanded sabotage brought with it such emotion. God, the last time you had felt this angry was after you had seen the look on Ell's face when she called you a monster._

 _You stand outside of the auditorium as it clears out, unsure of why you are still there. You don't exactly have anywhere else to be, but you aren't exactly known for sticking around big gatherings. You glance at the auditorium doors again, just in time to see Laura and the Summer Society girl walk out together. Laura is smiling at the other woman shyly, and the taller woman leans in to say something as they weave their way through the students still milling about. Both of the women glance at you, probably feeling the weight of your glare. Why does Laura seem to be a magnet for the most annoying creatures on the planet? You turn away and leave the auditorium as fast as you can. You don't know why but you need to run, and not in your human form. ___

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Thursgay!

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first time writing on the interwebs. You can find me on [Tumblr](http://thisishowisayiloveyou.tumblr.com)


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